Holiday that never was

It's been six weeks since I've written. Traditionally these six weeks have been my summer holiday. We've taken the opportunity to get away before preparing ourselves for a new school year. This year is of course different. I've tried and indeed am trying to adjust to the fact that next Monday I won't be returning to work. After twenty years it's proving difficult to detach myself from the routines and thought processes that I've developed over the years.

I suppose the other reason for nor writing is that August is usually a "quiet month" month in the world of politics. This year,of course, the summer was dominated by the "shopping riots" as the French media so aptly described them. While people around the world demonstrate and take to the streets to acquire fundamental human rights, in urban England people riot and loot to acquire trainers and smart phones.

I decided not to immediate write regarding my feelings about the summer, but I'm left weeks later looking at deeper causation. If we promote a society where people are judged by their possessions, possessions that are marketted at young people who are then denied the opportunities to acquire the wealth to buy them, then don't be surprised by the events that occurred in high streets in London/Birmingham etc.

Weeks later, as London prepares for the 2012 Olympics, I read that to reach the Olympic Stadium from the railway station at Stratford, spectators have to pass through the newly built Westfield Shopping City. More and more we are seen as consumers rather than citizens, and this development, reinforces this view.

As of today I'm no longer being paid by my previous employer, I've become a pensioner. How will this affect my lifestyle and thought. I sense these may be themes that I will return to in the weeks ahead.